Beauty, Efficiency Everywhere : This Place Is a Long Way From Georgia in More Ways Than One

A vase of cut flowers on a clean ledge in a sparkling men’s room at a highway rest stop. . . .

Snow-capped mountains wherever one looks, when one is looking up. . . .

Buses that leave precisely when scheduled. . . .

Smiling faces of people so eager to please, it’s almost embarrassing to ask for assistance. . . .

I don’t think we’re in Georgia anymore, Bubba. They may be having Olympic Games here, but that’s the only resemblance to Atlanta in the summer of ’96.

Here, it’s more or less business as usual. The Olympics may be here, but the laundry still needs to be hung out to dry on the porches. People still need to cycle to work, or the grocery store, or wherever.

The streets are lined with welcoming banners, not vendors. In fact, unless you go to an Olympic venue, you might be hard-pressed to find something Olympic-related to buy--except for the ubiquitous Snowlets, the owlish-looking official mascots in their various forms.

There is one specialized souvenir shop near the Big Hat, one of the hockey venues. It’s the NHL Japan Shop, the “Official Nagano Booth.” And across the street from the International Broadcast Center, some enterprising soul has erected a tent, from where he dispenses Coca-Cola--shades of Atlanta, after all--and “Cup Noodle” for 200 yen--a little more than a buck and a half. It isn’t clear from the sign whether you get both the Coke and the noodles for that price, but savvy shoppers know right off that such a bargain isn’t likely. Nagano may be a friendly city, but it’s also an expensive one.

You hear stories about a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee going for more than $50--better to stick with the noodles and Coke--but they may be just stories. Firsthand experience is much more reliable and in firsthand experience, getting eight duplicate keys cut costs 2,400 yen, plus tax, which brings the total to 2,520 yen, a cool $21.35 at that day’s exchange rate.

OK, so that’s a little high. But it isn’t outrageous. It isn’t gouging for the sake of a quick buck. It’s the cost of doing business in a place where doing business costs. Besides, you don’t mind paying a little extra after a non-English-speaking woman in a totally unrelated store has painstakingly drawn a map to the key cutter’s tire shop. And bowed in presenting it.

It’s far too early to tell and there are far too many things that can go wrong to make any ringing proclamations. Those buses that leave so promptly, for instance. Once they hit traffic, and there is plenty of that here, they tend to bog down, just as buses do everywhere in heavy traffic. There are special lanes for Olympic traffic, now that the Games have begun, but a little wintry weather and. . . .

But why borrow trouble? It comes along fast enough on its own. The good people of Nagano appear to have made a serious effort to make these Games go smoothly. Here’s hoping they do.